keeping our yard at it's best and it's ready to be shown off when we get a request.
But sad to say after this fall it's not the same anymore! Our neighbors could care
less where they trees stuff dumps. Just look at their own yards and how they are kept.
They all leave it to me to clean up the mess and keep the street clean. As none of them
pick up after their trees. Let's talk about their trees. None of them has gotten an arborist's
opinion after we sent out our letters. One had the two trees removed after it was pointed
out that they were diseased and split. Another removed most of their trees after not doing
a thing for years. Then they wanted us to allow their tree folks to drop their limbs into our
yard when they did have a tree trimmer out after being told no. Matter of fact they sent him
to talk to us, again he was told no. Sorry our property is posted private property and we do
have rights to send them away. I watched as they took out the other trees and they were cut
and dropped, no way are you going to use our property for that kind of tree removal.
Besides you chopped the limbs up on your side and allowed them to grow over out property.
I ask how safe are these trees?? If you read back issues in our blog you will see the damage
we have had from another neighbor, no longer can they say they didn't know their trees were bad.
We now can furnish the court records to our insurance company.
We have watched for years how property owners neglected their trees, how they were planted
on the property lines, to close to each other and have dealt with the mess they leave. We have
watch how they trash our yard and you do nothing. So we have learned the lesson you have
taught us, who cares! Not one of you have even offered to do anything to help us or pay for
the removal of material. So it's time to return the lesson you have taught us! According to the
local law enforcement officers, "if it's not yours you can not keep it and it's must be returned in a timely manner." You just don't get it!! None of our plant material blows into your yard as
we are really careful and have removed what we can before the winds blow. That is what
being a good neighbor does. How many of you even water your trees? I have watch as
you hacked off the dead stuff but for god sake the tree is dying! Take it out!! It really
makes me laugh too when I see a dead tree left in the yard and you plant more. Who cares??
We are placing bets how soon these will die.
You have the tree planted in your yard, you are responsible for it's leaves!! I am tired
of hearing, I pay my stormwater fee so let the County pick them up!! You don't even care
they blow into other neighbors' yards and have you looked how diseased them are? Now I
know why folks use chemicals! Your neglect not only hurts everyones' property values but
it's sure shows you don't care about the environment. You want to point your fingers at us
for our up keeping up our property and say we raise the values.....stupid!! Your neglect does
effect the value, it's just shows you don't care!! Yes, your neighbor can devaluate your
property by their actions or lack of action that is a known fact.
Every year in the fall we start early to protect what we grow due to, we know it's that or
loose what we grow when things fall. This past year we have lost several of our beloved
plants due to your neglect. I have fir needles covering the hostas to the point they died.
I am tired of bring in our dog in to cutting or removing sap due to what your trees dropping
junk. She can't even go in the whole yard due to the mess. Our deck is always covered so
we can't up keep it. I am tired of cleaning it off to try to paint it to just find more fir needles
covering it before the paint and stain goes down or dries. Yes, this is a year round dropping
issue. Try to remove the needles when it's wet!! Let's talk health issues too. Ya know to
much fir needles in one's yard can cause one to be come allergic to it?? Yep, they are causing allergic reactions to our family. Not only that but they caused the plant material to die if left
on there for any period of time. It also makes the soil so acidy nothing will grow, just look at the ground up under these trees, nothing grows. Nor is it fair to your neighbor if they can't enjoy
their yard. I have seen the mushrooms that everyone has in their yard, wonder if you have
figured out why yet?? They also attract insects and the ants that many of you have been
dealing with. But again you don't care about your property, just look at all the junk you
keep on it. Or stuff you put up under the trees, how safe is that?? I believe the county has
a 1.5 cubic feet of junk per lot law.
Let's talk about the fir needles on your roofs, a sure way to ruin a roof by allowing them to
sit on the roof. You damage others roofs, but you don't care!! I don't see you offering to
clean your neighbor's roof or your own. Seniors shouldn't be on roofs!! I'll be back up
on ours to remove it when the wind dies down, a place where I'm forbidden to go after
sliding off ours due to the needles. But we can't afford to have it cleaned off weekly so
someone has to do it!
But your don't care!! You say you are a good neighbor......
This is our deck 10/29 and this is what it usually
looks like covered in needles.
Our shed roof after being cleaned off just this past weekend.
This is directly up under the west trees. For years we have watched this
rhodie being eaten until we found out that might help. This year
we got to see it bloom. It's been in the ground 10 years and this year we saw
it put on new growth. It is still being eaten but she is finally taking off.
But look at what is at her feet.
Hydrangeas are more forgiving but these leaves are always
covered by needles.
This is the walkway to the shed and you can see
all the needles which I will add were vac up yesterday!
I can vac them up daily this time of year.
Another pathway to the north of the house covered in needles,
also was vac up yesterday.
This area is where we allow our dog to do
her job as you can see it's covered. This area
was cleaned out just less than a week ago.
This is north of the greenhouse and always covered with needles
and swept a few times a day. The only way to remove from a gravel
area is either vac or blow them.
These are the trees to the east, planted to close to each other and
limbed up to the east side. The limbs hang over our property several
feet, to the other side of the shed on the left in the photo. Tell me these
are health with all the needles they drop.
I had to remove a 5 gallon pickle bucket from this area before I
could take out dog out to do her job, we went out to this!
Just a matter of minutes.
These are the west trees after the two to the north were removed. This
is how the company left them after they two were removed. If you zoom
in you can see how these are dying and browning. You can see how the back
of our property is dumped on by these trees. These are 80 footers and only
trimmed up once before the two were removed. Yes this is how the tree trimmers
they hired left them. No wind sailing was done per the arborist letter we sent them.
These trees have had plenty of damage over the years with most of it falling into our
yard and taking our fence out now three times.
This is a mild case of leaf dropping from the maples to the north.
Every day these are vac up daily or even twice daily. We can't afford
to have these leaves left on the lawn. Nor will we leave leaf mulch in
this area due to the mold and damage to the plants.
Here are the trees to the west and you can see they
hang almost to our roof area. Note the mulch we have down in
this area is totally covered with fir needles. The red maple can't
grow upward as there is no room for it to grow.
This is how our yard should look like
when it's cleaned up. You can see the grass isn't
growing well back here.
You can see from this photo how the maple tree is top heavy and
leans over our property. The property to the north has so many trees
on the small lot you can see them sway in the wind. When this subdivision
was put in they lower the lots on the other side of our fence around 8 feet.
We are watching the evergreen trees to the east of the maple die. I will
also note here that these folks have a fire pit which they burn their yard
debris in and we deal with their smoke, another thing that isn't health for
folks or plant material.
Hydrangeas to the west up under the west trees are always covered
with needles until we strip the leaves in the fall, Nov., when we can
do the cleanup up under them.
Arborvitaes hanging over the property line and you can see
them are also browning/dying.
Lot of this is found in our yard, from neighboring arborvitaes,
again not our trees.
This is the evergreen to the west and you can see it's also dying and turning brown.
This photo is looking up into the trees to the north evergreen
and you can see all the browning. We have been watching this tree
being cut and can smell it being burnt.
Another photo from a different angle of those to the west.
This is just a sample of what we see, we
have seen worse dropping out of the north Maple
trees!! I took them into a nursery and they are mite
damaged from what I was told.
This poor Rose of Sharon was planted
the same time as the others in the photo
below. It's being killed off by the roots of
the maple tree to the north, planted on the
property line.
Here is all that were planted at the same time.
A closer view of the maple over our property. Note our trees are small
and kept in check not allowed to go over our fence line. The Wisteria
is now being allowed to grow where ever it does on the north side,
it's usually shaped into a ball on the top.
This is our hosta area, looking to the north and you can see it's
covered with needles. I have vac it up once in this area, it needs it again.
This area is our over flow bed, where I have tried to remove some
of the needles but I can tell you it is covered again.
This is the veggies garden bed and it's covered with needles.
The reason we have to cover this area. This is the south bed.
This is the north bed and it's too covered. We removed all the
needles yesterday and took 2 - 5 gallon buckets off this area.
The paths are totally covered and will have to be vac up.
This is the front parking area where my DH parks, his
truck is covered daily with needles and sap from the trees to the east.
Back in front of the greenhouse on 10/29 before vac up the leaves.
North of the greenhouse we have some hanging pots, this is
normally what we see daily and try to empty them out weekly.
This photo is taken 10/29 out the kitchen window, none of
these are leaves are from out trees. Again this is vac up daily,
morning and late after noon if I have time.
This is the hosta bed, covered with needles on 10/29 after
I had vac up the whole area just a couple days prior.
This is normally what we deal with on the roof. During the fall
I'm up there weekly blowing them off.
Another photos earlier in Oct.
The cardoon west of the north garden bed, covered in
needles.
Here is the photo when I did the clean up of the hosta bed,
as you can see you aren't going to get them all, but this is better
than allowing this area to die. It was all in grass and that was
hard to get it to grow so we took it out and turned it to a hosta bed.
We also put out new mulch in the spring and let me tell you it hurts to
see it covered and our yard trashed. I go out every day and clean up
the mess so I can show my yard! This all started in the end of August
and won't stop until the snow hits. Then we wait to see what damage
we get from winds, storms due to the neglect. I am so glad the OR Professor
stated that the evergreens are dying and confirms what we have been saying for years!!
2:30PM 10/29
Just a few short hours have passed and it's time to take Sable out to potty.
So I go out first to find what was cleaned up was trashed even more!! I had to
rake so she could go out safely.
I found limbs all over! Even a few had flown to the hosta bed to the west!
Adding more photos from the north side of the house.
This is the upper part of the deck.
Our deck looking south.
North of the house by the swing set and shed
were littered by lots of limbs.
This is the area that I vac up just a few hours
ago and it's totally covered and limbs all over.
The north walkway, you can't see the mulch at all.
The walkway between the two greenhouse.
Sable's area.
The swing set area with limbs. This all has to be raked up,
pine combs and sticks aren't good for the mower. 10/30 after finally
getting this area cleaned I was able to mow. The catcher had more
fir needles than grass.
After raking up the area. It will all have to be vac up yet again.
Sable's area raked up by not vac up. 11/1 finally getting to this
area to vac up, 4 pickle buckets were removed from this area. There
is no way I'll ever get it all vac up. I know within a week I'll be doing
this again.
This is after the first raking.
The full deck is covered.
10/30
I spent from 9:15am to 3:30pm cleaning up the yard and it looks like another couple days of cleaning before it will all be done.
10/31
Another day of clean up and mowing.
11/1
Another day of clean up and hopefully getting Sable's
area cleaned.
11/2
Another day of clean up but I can now see progress being
made. Last area to be done is the hosta beds and the garden
area. Plus my daily vac up of the leaves.
11/18
It has now been almost 3 and a half weeks of using the vac and blower daily to get the yard back
to where is was before the wind hit. I had only 5 beds to vac up but just went outside and found
the wind has kicked up again and I again have fir needles all over again! The roadway is again
has neighbors' leaves blown clear down to the end of the circle and again I'll be out there cleaning it up when the rain stops.
Again the wind kicked up and we got more fir needles!! All I can do is keep the vac handy to make sure it's picked up before it gets really thick. 12/2 I had to hose down the deck to get the needles out of the crack as the deck needs to breath!! Or it's mold big time!!
Here is what my new vacuum looks like after it's blown out and before it's wiped down.
three short weeks of cleaning 3 times
a week.
We live with fir or evergreen on 3 of the 4
sides and ya might say it's pretty dirty
living with these trees, inside and out!!
